The present application lies in the field of providing communication party related information to a party of a communication that comprises a first and a second party.
Examples of such communications are a voice call (such as a telephone call over a telephone network), a data call (such as an email communication or an SMS (short message service)/MMS (multimedia message service) message) or a real-time chat.
In the field of communication it is known to provide a party identifier of one party of a communication to the other. For example, when a communication between two parties, A and B, is established in a telecommunication network, a mechanism for forwarding identification information between the e.g. calling party A and the e.g. called party B takes place. For example, this party identifier or identification information can be the telephone number of the calling party. The identification information helps the called party to identify who is calling. The same concept is also known for data calls, such as sending emails (the identifier being an email address), instant messages or real-time chat (the identifier usually being some form of nickname or alias defined within the instant messaging service), SMS/MMS messages (the identifier usually being a telephone number or an email address). In telephone networks this mechanism is also known as a Caller Identification Service (Call-ID).
It is furthermore known to provide a dedicated application in communication equipment (e.g. mobile phones) for mapping the party identifier against a contact list or contact database in which party identifiers are associated with further party information, such as a name, a nickname, a photograph, a ring-tone, etc.
Such contact lists are customized by the user of the communication equipment. When the respective party receives a party identifier, then the application can take the further party information from the contact list as a form of extended presentation information, such that e.g. a mobile phone will not show the generic telephone number of the calling party, but the customized name from the contact list and/or a photograph associated with the calling party and/or ring with a dedicated ring-tone associated with the calling party. In this way, the called party can readily identify the calling party.
It is known to maintain such contact lists or contact databases within the communication equipment and/or within the communication network in dedicated functions or servers. In the latter case this is also referred to as “network address books” or “network contact lists”.
The problem with the above-mentioned known concepts of providing party related information is that typically the party identifier communicated from one party to another or from the network to a party is of generic nature (such as a standardised telephone number), such that in itself it is not very useful for the receiver of the information, unless the receiving party already knows the party identifier in the sense that this party identifier is in the receiving party's contact list or address book.
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved mechanism of providing communication party related information to a party of a communication.